Frank Amberley is a somewhat abrasive attorney who is apparently very good at his job and at sometimes helping the police investigate crimes. On his drive to visit his aunt, uncle and cousin in the English countryside, he gets lost while using a shortcut his cousin Felicity had suggested. In the dark, he happens upon a woman standing on a remote lane outside of a car with a dead man's body in the driver's seat. She says she didn't murder the man, and Frank believes her. It's clear that she wants Frank to leave, and he does, but he goes to report the dead body to the local police sergeant, omitting the fact that the woman was at the scene.
As it turns out, the dead man was the butler for a nearby manor. Basil Fountain had inherited the estate when his uncle died two years ago. His stepsister Joan (who happens to be a friend of Frank's cousin Felicity) is engaged to be married, and she and her fiancé are both staying with Basil. When Basil hosts a masquerade party, the mysterious woman from the butler's car is there, uninvited (but masked), trying to find something in a piece of furniture. When Frank realizes who she is, he tries to help, but his abrasive manner‒and hers‒keeps them from being honest with each other.
As time goes on and the death count rises, the mystery deepens. If the woman didn't shoot the butler, who did, and why? And what is the missing item which is being sought?
It's an old story, set back long ago, and while the characters don't act in a way I find entirely realistic, it is fine. The wrap-up at the end goes on rather long, though. (And one unneeded use of an insensitive term is used, which detracted a bit from the story, I thought.)
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